PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Energy major Woodside is now operating its Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, in Western Australia, remotely from Perth, some 1 500 km away.
The remote operations center, dubbed Moorditj Danjoo (MD) is the first 100% remotely operated LNG plant in the world.
Construction of MD was completed last year, and the first LNG ship at Pluto was loaded from the remote control room later in the year. Since then, the operations center has recorded more than 3 000 hours of operation.
"The significance to Woodside is that this is a step towards integrated operations. There are no central control room operators remaining on site. Process safety risks are mitigated through new and improved procedures, situational awareness tools and increased competency within the incident management team on site,” said Pluto remote operations delivery manager Shawn Fernando.
“This ground-breaking facility not only means we can manage site operations more safely and efficiently, it provides the opportunity for our people to work flexibly from our Perth headquarters,” added CEO Meg O’Neill.
Pluto currently has a 4.9-million-tonne-a-year capacity, with Woodside working to add a second train with an additional five-million-tonne-a-year capacity. The Scarborough and Pluto Train 2 developments are expected to cost a combined $12-billion, with Woodside’s share of capital expenditure amounting to $6.9-billion. First LNG cargo from Scarborough is targeted for 2026.